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5 things to know about the Detroit Lions, the Panthers’ Week 5 opponent

By Johnny Wakefield
Paul Sancya AP

It’s been a tumultuous few weeks in the NFL. One quarter of the way through the 2017 season, the Carolina Panthers sit tied atop the NFC South with the Atlanta Falcons at 3-1, but most of the attention has been elsewhere.

Jerry Richardson’s tepid response to the kneeling controversy, Cam Newton’s black power salute Sunday in New England, and then Newton’s sexist remarks aimed at Observer reporter Jourdan Rodrigue on Wednesday have kept that focus off the field. (We’ll talk about that a bit below.)

Each week in the 2017 season, CharlotteFive will give you a quick preview about the Panthers’ upcoming opponent — sometimes love, sometimes hate, sometimes just things to know. We’ll leave the legitimate previews to the pros at the Observer.

Next up, the perennially not-good-enough, NFC North-leading Detroit Lions.

(Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. in Detroit, Michigan, and the game will be broadcast on FOX.)

(1) Off-the-field drama and distractions.

This isn’t about the Lions, but it’s what Panthers fans (and sports fans everywhere) are talking about this week.

In case you’ve been under a rock since the Panthers win over the Patriots, Cam Newton spent his midweek press conference laughing at the idea that a “female” would “talk about routes.”

Of course, that “female” was one of the best beat writers in the country, the Charlotte Observer’s Jourdan Rodrigue. It showed a side of Cam that most of us hadn’t seen before, and Rodrigue was put in the awful position of ignoring the comment or making herself the story. She handled it as well as anyone could, and her coworkers around the sports world had her back, too.

After losing a sponsorship deal in the backlash, Newton posted an apology to social media late Thursday night:

I have to wonder whether the amount of attention justifiably paid to sexism from the Panthers’ quarterback and leader will distract the team on the field on Sunday. I think it might.

There are much bigger issues here, but we’ll leave them for another time and place. That said, if you don’t follow Jourdan on social media or read her stuff (and the work of her colleague, Joseph Person), you’re missing out on the absolute best Panthers coverage there is.

(2) The Lions are good, but it can’t last.

The Detroit Lions are 3–1 and lead the NFC North. Matthew Stafford’s boys made the playoffs last season on the back of several last-minute comeback victories, but they promptly lost their first postseason game — as they usually do — extending their playoff losing streak to nine-in-a-row.

Detriot’s last playoff victory was in the 1991 NFC Divisional Playoffs against the Dallas Cowboys. Since then, they lost the 1991 NFC Championship to Washington and eight consecutive Wild Card games over 25 years.

It’s the worst playoff losing streak in NFL history. And the Lions were established 87 years ago and they’re the only NFC team to have never appeared in a Super Bowl.

So it might be a little early to consider them a Super Bowl contender.

(3) They’re depressing enough to end careers.

Remember Megatron? You should: Calvin Johnson, one of the best wide receivers of all time, set all sorts of NFL records while playing at Ford Field.

Then he retired from the NFL at age 30 not because he wasn’t good enough anymore, but because the Lions weren’t:

“I didn’t see a chance for them to win a Super Bowl at the time,” Johnson, now 32, told the Detroit Free Press. “For the work I was putting in, it wasn’t worth my time, to keep on beating my head up against the wall, and not go anywhere. It’s the definition of insanity.”

I mean, whether you think that says more about the Lions or Calvin Johnson himself, when your best player retires because he just can’t take it anymore, that’s rough.

(4) They do more than just pass.

For years during that Calvin Johnson era, the Lions were known for their passing game: Matthew Stafford and Johnson combined for nearly all of the Lions’ offense.

This season, they’ve added a consistent running threat in Ameer Abdullah.

Last week against the Vikings, Abdullah nearly notched the first 100-yard rushing game for Detroit since Reggie Bush in 2003.

Part of my extensive research for these previews is to play the upcoming matchup on Madden 18, and the Lions torched my usually solid Panthers defense with the run.

My performance on Madden is clearly not an indicator of real life results in the slightest (seriously — follow Jourdan and Joe), but after facing the Saints and Patriots offenses in back-to-back weeks, a Matthew Stafford-powered attack with a side of Ameer Abdullah could pose a bigger challenge than stats would indicate.

(Yes, I still won on Madden: 24–21.)

(5) They gave a win to the Falcons, kind of.

Detroit could be undefeated going into Week 5, the only undefeated team in the NFC and one of two in the NFL with a 4–0 record. But in what might end up being the strangest game of the 2017 season (or at least the strangest finish) the Lions lost their Week 3 game on a controversial, confusing last-second play.

Their opponent in Week 3? The Atlanta Falcons.

Down 30–26 in the final minutes at Ford Field, Stafford led the Lions downfield and appeared to throw a game-winning touchdown to Golden Tate with 8 seconds left on the clock. The stadium erupted … then the play was reviewed.

The result of that review? Not only was the pass not a touchdown — Tate was ruled down inside the 1-yard line — but because of the review, a mandatory 10-second runoff was enforced and the game ended.

The Lions were good enough to win that day; they’ll be a challenge on Sunday for the Panthers. And it sure would’ve been nice to be a game ahead of the Falcons going into this matchup.

Thanks a lot, Detroit.

Photo: AP Photo/Paul Sancya

This story was originally published October 5, 2017 at 11:54 PM with the headline "5 things to know about the Detroit Lions, the Panthers’ Week 5 opponent."

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